By mid-August 1944, it began to look to
the Calgary Highlanders like the German Army in Normandy was finally
collapsing, and the 5th Brigade War Diary reflected on the 10th that
German forces opposite were mainly low-grade battle groups. The
regimental newsletter noted in July 1945:

The tempo of the fighting decreased
as we fought our way through Bretteville and Clair Tison. However,
the fatigue of the pursuit increased as we tried, generally in vain,
to engage the enemy at Urville, Fontaine-les-Pin, through the
shelling at Orbec to Ste. Germain-la-Campagne. It was on the way to
Orbec, as we passed through Vimoutier and Laboscraie, that we felt
the first collapse of the German Army.

Nonetheless, despite
the breakthrough to Falaise and the rout of the German 7th Army,
there was still work to be done. A period of rest ended on the 12th
by orders to move southwards again. On entering Mesnil-Touffrey in
the late afternoon, enemy artillery fire killed Private Wallace
Bradley, the C.O.'s driver. By last light on 12 August 1944, the
Calgary Highlanders were ordered to pass through Moulines and move
south to Clair Tison, described as "a few stone farmhouses lying
mostly on the north side of a narrow east-west blacktop road." It
was located in a valley, with high ground to east and west, with the
River Laise flowing through the town and irrigating the orchards and
farmland that surrounded the small hamlet.

By advancing to Clair Tison,
the Highlanders would be leading the entire 2nd Canadian Division in their
attempt to turn the German flank along the river. For the third consecutive
time, the Calgary Highlanders were required to lead a 5th Brigade attack, as
the other two battalions were too depleted. (The Maisonneuves were 231
riflemen short, effectively only being able to field two companies instead
of four).

Hot food was brought up to
the men at midnight on the night of 12-13 August, welcome after a day of
marching in the hot sun. The Highlanders would go without sleep for another
night. Brigadier Megill withdrew the planned armoured support from the 6th
Canadian Armoured Regiment, and the C.O. of the Highlanders was advised that
tanks of the 27th Armoured Regiment would instead rendezvous during the
morning at Le Mesnil, on the anticipated axis of advance.The advance started
at 01:45. The route had not been reconnoitered and the night was especially
dark. Enemy positions were unknown, and the battalion set off through thick
trees. Only maps and compasses were available to guide the unit over sunken
roads and unmarked tracks. The night is described by Bercuson's history as
still and thick with mist.

Moulines was not in the hands
of the 4th Brigade as expected, and it was apparent that any continued
advance would be unsupported. Lieutenant Colonel MacLauchlan decided to push
forward. Passing through an orchard south of Moulines, the battalion found a
narrow dirt track, which they followed east for a kilometre, then turned
south, and skirted the western edge of a thick wood before arriving at Le
Mesnil just before dawn. The lead company was halted and ordered to wait; as
battalion headquarters arrived, brigade ordered defensive positions dug
around Le Mesnil.

At this point, a German
Regimental Aid Post was captured, complete with enemy Medical Officer and
wounded soldiers. Since RAPs are set up well to the rear of battalion
fighting positions, it became apparent that somehow the entire battalion had
infiltrated the German defences. Retreating German troops were encountered
and seemed eager to surrender, many bearing safe conduct leaflets. One
German jumped into Major Mark Tennant's jeep, desperate to give up. Some 75
soldiers were captured at Le Mesnil during the night.

German soldiers were reported near "D" Company's
positions in the morning, to the left and rear of the battalion. A brief
firefight resulted in many German casualties, and some companies, in the
words of Roy Farran, "were fighting backwards in the direction from which
they had come." The lead companies were engaged in shootouts with German
transport on the road to the south, and prisoners from that direction
included a German Regimental commander.

Signals Sergeant Alvin Palfenier, who had
distinguished himself at May-sur-Orne, was wounded in the head, and loaded
into a jeep with a medical orderly. The driver got lost on his way back to
the Highlanders' RAP, and the jeep was captured. The driver escaped, but
Palfenier disappeared. He was initially listed as missing; he today lies in
the Bretteville-sur-Laise war cemetery; he left behind a wife in Medicine
Hat. He was 27 years of age; his brother Theodore, serving in the South
Alberta Regiment, was killed a month later. Palfenier had accompanied the
original draft of Highlanders to the U.K. on the SS Pasteur.

The battalion stayed in Le Mesnil throughout the
morning of 13 August. The tanks of the 27th Armoured Regiment arrived and
the company commanders planned the advance on Clair Tison with the C.O. It
would be a mutually supporting affair, with companies covering each other by
bounds. The advance started at 14:00, with "D" and "C" Company in front from
left to right. "D" went through the north end of a triangular-shaped orchard
west of Les Houlles - a small hamlet northwest of Clair Tison. A "C" Company
platoon meanwhile captured a suddenly encountered 88mm gun, driving the crew
off. As "D" moved into Les Houlles, "B" moved through "C" into the south end
of the orchard. "A" moved into a smaller orchard 400 metres west of Clair
Tison. All the while, German artillery fire harrassed the unit, and two
tanks were lost. The battalion's anti-tank platoon brought up two 6-pounders
in case enemy tanks were spotted.

"A" Company managed to secure
an important crossroads in an orchard west of Clair Tison, and "D" Company
left Les Houlles to move through them, parallel to and north of the main
road. The carrier platoon moved in to hold Les Houlles in their place. "C"
moved toward Clair Tison on the south side of the road. German artillery
remained inaccurate, falling to the rear of the advancing Canadians, and
Canadian armour tried to engage German 88mm guns. "A" Company followed "C"
and "D" into Clair Tison itself.

The bridge over the Laise was
checked for mines by the battalion's pioneer platoon. The unit had three
companies in the town, but all were west of the river, and so the CO ordered
"B" Company to leave its position in the triangular orchard and move east,
through Les Houlles, to the Laise. They moved at the same time battalion HQ
made its move south through the same area, and German shelling sent the
company to ground, ordered to stand firm until "A" Company could withdraw
and assist them. The company was reorganized, and moved away from the area,
towards the river, crossing the obstacle at 17:30. "A" Company also crossed
the river at about this time.

German artillery observers,
on high ground to the east less than a kilometre away, brought down heavy
shelling, setting most of the buildings afire and knocking out two more
Shermans. Tank fire and artillery of the 5th Field Regiment was called down
on the Germans on the high ground. The Highlanders had two companies on each
side of the river now, with a small bridge between them - but further
movement into Clair Tison was impossible due to the clear fields of
observation German artillery observers had.

On the evening of the 13th,
Le Regiment de Maisonneuve attacked south through the bridgehead towards Le
Chesnaie, but were repulsed from the high ground east of Clair Tison. A
second attack through the Highlanders by the 6th Canadian Brigade managed to
secure a bridgehead over the Laise River, taking high ground at La
Cressonierre, on a ridge overlooking the Laise Valley. This assisted the
forward movement of II Canadian Corps, and again put the Highlanders behind
the front.

The action was overshadowed
by Operation TRACTABLE that same day, with four divisions attacking towards
Falaise after carpet bombing by heavy bombers. For the Highlanders, though,
it was a time of rest. They marched northwest to Tournebu, having been
without food and sleep for an extended period of time. For all intents and
purposes, their involvement in the Battle of Normandy was over; the final
act would be pursuing the defeated German armies to the Seine.

Casualties were "amazingly
low", and morale high. They had improved greatly since Hill 67 and
Bretteville. Their actions, according to Terry Copp, "unhinged German
resistance on their right flank, assisting 4 Brigade's advance to Tournebu
and 53rd (Welsh) Division's movement to Mortainville."

Three major decorations were
awarded for this battle. The Commanding Officer received the DSO in October
1944, and the citation read as follows:

On 13 August 1944, the Calgary Highlanders
under command of Lieutenant-Colonel MacLauchlan advanced along the low
wooded country immediately to the west of River Laise to capture a crossing
at Clair Tison. The battalion had just completed a night march through
difficult country and was to be covered in its further advance by another
brigade which was to secure the high ground on the right. This ground was
not in fact captured and the Calgary Highlanders were therefore advancing,
overlooked from both flanks. Undeterred by this or by the fact that
Battalion Headquarters was under heavy shell fire and mortar fire throughout
the day, Lieutenant-Colonel MacLauchlan pressed his battalion on making
skilful use of the ground and passing companies through to successive
objectives so quickly and steadily that the enemy was not able to determine
the exact course of the battle and take any effective counter measures.

As a result of this determined drive, the
battalion was able to form a firm bridgehead over the River Laise by 1800
hours that evening and to hold it in spite of all enemy attempts to dislodge
the battalion until the flanks had been secured and another formation passed
through to the high ground beyond.

Lieutenant-Colonel MacLauchlan, demonstrating
outstanding leadership by his personal courage and example, determination
and endurance enabled his battalion to inflict a severe defeat on the enemy
in this important engagement.

Lieutenant Ross was awarded
the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star in April 1945. His citation
read:

On 12 August 1944 the Calgary Highlanders
were given the task of establishing a bridgehead across the River Laise near
the town of Clair Tison. The operation involved the seizing of three
intermediate objectives before the crossing could be made and the bridgehead
secured. Communications were of paramount importance and when at the end of
the second phase wireless failed liaison had to be established by an officer
on foot.

Lieutenant Ross was chosen for this important
role and although very tired from previous operations he set out immediately
and under heavy enemy shell and mortar fire made his way to the forward
companies and brought back the complete picture of the situation to his
commanding officer.

As the battalion's position was such that
immediate bold action seemed vital to the success of the operation,
Lieutenant Ross volunteered to return to the forward companies, brief them
and start them off. Reading the battle as he went he decided when he reached
the fourth company that the opportune moment for a company to rush the
bridge and seize the high ground on the far side of the river had arrived.
He issued the necessary instructions accordingly and so accurate had been
his analysis that the bridge was secured intact and the bridgehead
established.

During all this time intense enemy fire was
directed on the area in which he had to move about but regardless of the
risks he was taking, Lieutenant Ross remained cool, and not only performed
the task detailed, for which he had volunteered, but studied the progress of
the battle and by using initiative and excellent judgement enabled his
battalion to strike at the exact moment when the changes of success were
greatest.

This officer's total disregard for his
personal safety, his calmness and quick thinking more than compensated for
the lack of normal communications and were in no small measure responsible
for the successful establishment of this important bridgehead essential to
the success of the brigade...

Sergeant Harbut was awarded
the Croix de Guerre with Bronze Star in April 1945:

On the morning of 12 August 1944 the Calgary
Highlanders prior to an attack on Clair Tison moved into Le Mesnil. A quick
reorganization had to be made due to a report of enemy being on the left
flank.

Lance-Sergeant Harbut in charge of a Bren
group, by using initiative and very good judgement, so positioned his guns
that a maximum volume of fire was soon brought down on the enemy. The
resultant very large number of killed and wounded was so demoralizing to the
remaining twenty that they speedily surrendered. Lance-Sergeant Harbut's
effective and quick action in clearing up the area enabled his battalion to
rapidly reorganize and prepare for further engagements.

Later that morning [his] company was ordered
to seize and clear Les (Houlles). During the approach to Les (Houlles) the
company was stopped by very heavy machine gun fire. Lance-Sergeant Harbut by
his unconcerned actions and daring example so encouraged his section that
they too disregarded the fire. The whole company becoming infected with the
same spirit, immediately advanced, captured Les (Houlles), and forced the
enemy to retire to Claire Tison.

The attack on (Clair) Tison was planned and
launched immediately. D Company's two-inch mortars were concentrated under
command of Lance-Sergeant Harbut. Although by now very tired, and in spite
of the intense enemy machine gun and mortar fire brought down on his every
movement, he skilfully directed and maintained the volume of fire from his
mortars. By altering his position continually as his company advanced, he
was able to support them on to their objective.

While consolidating D Company was subjected
to a terrific enemy artillery and mortar barrage. Lance-Sergeant Harbut
moved from trench to trench encouraging his men until wounded and ordered
out for medical attention.

Lance-Sergeant Harbut's total disregard for
personal safety, his initiative and outstanding leadership were an example
to all ranks as well as being of immeasurable assistance in contributing to
the success of this action.

Photo courtesy Andy
Dorosh

Photo courtesy Sgt.
Denny Russell

Legacy

Clair Tison has survived as a
small little village south of Caen. The important events of the Second World
War were memorialized there in a plaque dedicated to the soldiers of Le
Regiment de Maisonneuve. During the Centennial Battlefield Tour on June 6th,
2010, a guard of Calgary Highlanders, led by the Commanding Officer,
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Vernon, and the Regimental Sergeant Major, Chief
Warrant Officer Emmett Kelly, marched into Clair Tison behind the Regimental
Pipes and Drums. After a short but emotional ceremony with local VIPs and
citizens, a new plaque honouring the sacrifice of The Calgary Highlanders
was dedicated at the site of the original bridge over the Laise River.
Pressed for time, the regimental delegation - approximately 80 serving
soldiers, musicians, retired members, and friends of the regiment -
nonetheless enjoyed a brief coffee break in a local courtyard before
boarding their buses for two other ceremonies that day, at Hill 67 and Juno
Beach. As the buses pulled away, the citizens of Clair Tison, who had
attended the ceremony in full force, lined the street to wave and hold up
Canadian flags, wishing fond farewells as if to blood relatives. The poetry
read aloud by the French school children at the ceremony remained fresh in
the mind, if not the actual words, then the spirit with which it had been
presented - "we are the children you never lived to have."

The original bridge site at Clair Tison
photographed shortly after the ceremony in June 2010 by Sergeant Denny
Russell.
Not much to look at now, the bridge was important in 1944 because it was
just big enough to sufficiently bear the weight of a jeep, carrier or tank.

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